Ok, so I've gotten over the ps1 clunkiness and general sluggishness of final fantasy tactics and actually started to enjoy the game!

That is, until I hit the first ridiculously upward sloping difficulty curve. This game is horribly unbalanced. I can't believe that this got beyond a test team, let alone a "remake" test team.

I'd accept it if it was just a difficult battle which requires clever tactics and thought to win. Instead its a battle where you're quite simply out-numbered, out-levelled, out-abilitied, out-equipped and out-magicked. The only option is to level up in the random locations (of which there is only one because I'm stuck in a small portion of the map) until I have a chance of winning the battle.

Annoyingly, I did actually manage to win the battle but lost a few characters which I didn't want to lose so I'm trying again.

Other than that I am enjoying it though

Job system allows for really customised characters. Could do with one more ability slot in every category though.

It only gets worse from there! There's loads of difficulty spikes and then a massive difficulty drop right before the end. My advice is to concentrate on a small band of characters you will take with you through the whole game. You will get some unique characters later on that are too good to pass on. Also you'll get some really terrible ones. You'll have to be harsh and drop some squad members when a better replacement comes in and get rid of the weak characters even if they are unique.

Play as many random battles as you can. I like to do the pub missions and go for a wander so even though you are grinding you are aiming towards something. Also if you come across a boss character the best way to beat them is to steal their best equipment. Not only does it severely weaken them it will also get you some crazy powerful equipment that is essential to beating the game imo.

Also multiple save files. If the game asks you to save when two story missions come one after the other this usually means there's a boss fight and you can end up screwing yourself over if you aren't levelled up enough of haven't bought the right status negating equipment in the shops.

If you lose a character then restart, the time it takes to train up a new character from level 1 isn't worth it.

As for the job system, it's fantastic. It's great to play around with it and t can be great fun breaking the game.

It only gets worse from there! There's loads of difficulty spikes and then a massive difficulty drop right before the end. My advice is to concentrate on a small band of characters you will take with you through the whole game. You will get some unique characters later on that are too good to pass on. Also you'll get some really terrible ones. You'll have to be harsh and drop some squad members when a better replacement comes in and get rid of the weak characters even if they are unique.

Play as many random battles as you can. I like to do the pub missions and go for a wander so even though you are grinding you are aiming towards something. Also if you come across a boss character the best way to beat them is to steal their best equipment. Not only does it severely weaken them it will also get you some crazy powerful equipment that is essential to beating the game imo.

Also multiple save files. If the game asks you to save when two story missions come one after the other this usually means there's a boss fight and you can end up screwing yourself over if you aren't levelled up enough of haven't bought the right status negating equipment in the shops.

If you lose a character then restart, the time it takes to train up a new character from level 1 isn't worth it.

As for the job system, it's fantastic. It's great to play around with it and t can be great fun breaking the game.

I finally see the light! So, I managed to clear the two difficult levels yesterday (the gallows and the castle gates) and it went even better than I could have imagined. I've stolen the guys sword (which is strong and absorbs HP) and one of the summoners dropped a crystal which my own summoner picked up and learned 4 summons for free!

I just hope that the rest of the battles aren't too easy now that I've leveled up quite a bit. Pity it doesn't allow more than 5 characters per battle because I have 6 solid characters now and finding it hard to choose.

I'm starting to appreciate how good this game must have been when it came out

God that gallows fight really gave me loads of trouble as well! There's a really nasty boss fight coming up followed by a fight with 3 ninjas that is notoriously tough. The fight with the ninjas I'm sure is fixed because in the PS1 version unless you doing two things that are really obscure then you usually lose the fihgt before it even begins!

As I said, watch out for equipment carried by boss characters. There's a fight with one female boss who carries an accessory that when equipped to a female character automatically revives them making them invincible. It also makes the battle a whole lot easier since she tends to revive herself with it as well.

Just finished Final Fantasy Tactics yesterday. Despite taking a while to get into it, and despite its random spikes of difficulty, I did enjoy it in the end. Though the difficulty disappears when Orlandeu joins the party (and he's not even an optional sidequest character - he joins you no matter what!).

I really feel the game needs a rebalance if it is to be appreciated in the modern era. (I'm thinking here about the ipad/iphone release). Something tells me it'll just be another port though, like the psp version.

Next games in my sight are Persona 2 psp and FF Type O. But since they won't be released for another while I think I'll give Jeanne D'arc another run through